


Seven Years, Grayson.

by obsessiveninja



Series: Batgirl's Catchier [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: But not really romance, F/M, Humour, More like ... idiots, Romance, Yes idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-23
Updated: 2013-09-23
Packaged: 2017-12-27 10:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/977736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsessiveninja/pseuds/obsessiveninja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’d be nice if you could tell me where we’re going,” Batgirl said. But the statement only earned her an irritating grunt from Batman and an equally irritating giggle from Robin.<br/>“Also, next time, heads up before you blindfold me?” she tried again.<br/>Still more muffled laughter from the Boy Wonder. </p><p>A sequel to "Cheap, Girly Rip-Off".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seven Years, Grayson.

**Author's Note:**

> After "Cheap, Girly Rip-Off", I was sure I was going to take a break from fanfic for a while. But there were so many ideas that I was playing around with in my head that I never quite got to write down or fit in, and I had to let them out. While the last one was Dick-centric, this one is very much from Barbara's point of view. Also, more Alfred.

Patrol was tiring enough that Batgirl was allowed to be surprised when the newspaper landed on her lap. She should have been worried, because on the edge of a Gotham rooftop, her weakness would have been pretty visible, but she was simply too exhausted. It was kind of out of character for a Bat, but as she looked behind her to find Robin’s broad cheeky grin, she didn’t worry too much. She looked back down at the newspaper, still rolled up and pretty hot.

“Is this tomorrow’s?” she asked.

“Today, actually.” Robin sat down on the ledge next to her. “It’s 2am.”

The first time Robin had saved her – saved _Barbara_ – was when she was 10. She’d had a crush on him ever since then. But Robin didn’t need to know that.

“ _God_ ,” Batgirl yawned. “And you’ve been doing this since you were nine?”

“Eight,” he corrected, “And hey, maybe give it another seven years and you’ll be halfway decent.”

“Har har.”

“Just open the paper.”

“Pushy.” Batgirl stuck her tongue out at the Boy Wonder but opened the paper anyway. The headline read, ‘ _Batgirl Saves Gotham!_ ’

Batgirl sighed. “I told them I go by Bat- _woman_.”

“And I told you that it’d never stick,” Robin pointed out.

She scowled at him. He might have been cute, but he was also annoying smug. About _everything_. “Was that all?”

It was only then that she realised that he was leaning towards her. He’d been slowly leaning in the whole time.

About half a second later, all her lights went out.

 ----- 

“It’d be nice if you could tell me where we’re going,” Batgirl said. But the statement only earned her an irritating grunt from Batman and an equally irritating giggle from Robin.

“Also, next time, heads up before you blindfold me?” she tried again.

Still more muffled laughter from the Boy Wonder.

Blindfolded. She couldn’t believe she had allowed herself to be blindfolded. And she thought Robin was going to kiss her. She gave herself a mental smack across the head. Stupid, stupid Barbara.

Five minutes later, Barbara was getting pretty impatient. When she donned the cowl, she didn’t think the dark knight and his sidekick would bother her as much as they did. “We’re taking an awful long time to get to … wherever we’re going,” she pointed out.

“There’s traffic,” she heard Robin blurt.

“Robin,” Batman warned.

Barbara rolled her eyes as much as she could underneath the blindfold. “It’s 2am and I can _feel_ the car moving. I may not be one of the world’s greatest detectives, but I’m not stupid.”

She didn’t tell them that she sort of knew where they were, too. Robin had found her on the roof of an apartment building in southwest Gotham, and even blindfolded, the twists and turns the car was taking suggested they were heading towards the rivers.

The rest of the ride was silent – Batgirl had nothing to say, which meant Robin had nothing to provide a witty comeback to, and Batman never said anything anyway. But about 15 minutes in, Batman informed Batgirl that she was allowed to take her blindfold off. She complied; only find that it was just as dark as it was with her eyes covered, except for the area the headlights shone on.

“Are we …” Batgirl hesitated, “Are we in a gutter?”

“Not for much longer,” Batman replied.

“Trust me,” Robin told her from the passenger seat, “It gets worse.”

Dim lights in the distance turned brighter as they approached it, and soon, pipes turned into stalagmites and stalactites and … bats.

“Well,” Batgirl mused, “This is just rich.”

“She’s judging us,” Robin murmured.

“You’re dressed like a bat too,” Batman retorted.

“Touché. But I guess I’m touched and all that you’re finally trusting me enough to see this place. I mean, I’ve only been working with your for an _entire month_ , and saved both your asses countless times each week.”

No response.

“Remember that Poison Ivy fiasco?” Batgirl persisted, “If it weren’t for me, you two would still be her man-slaves. And that time Two-Face broke out of Arkham? And don’t get me started on our last two meetings with Catwoman. There’s was obviously only one thing the both of you were concentrating on that night – and I mean _both_ of you, Robin,” she added, when he pointed a finger up in protest. “Let’s not forget that I saved you on the very first night I started doing all this. _The very first night_. And yet –”

“That’s enough, Batgirl,” Batman interrupted.

It occurred to Batgirl that the car itself wasn’t moving forwards anymore; it was moving upwards. There were various floors and structures built into the cave, the place pulsing with technology. Her awe and wonder at the area forced her to bite back any comment about her name being Bat- _woman_ , and she tried instead to pick out as many details as she could on the way up – a giant Joker’s card, some medieval armour and … a giant penny?

“Gee, Batman,” Batgirl remarked, “You must have an awful lot of money.”

There weren’t all too many people in Gotham who had that kind of money.

There weren’t all too many people in Gotham who had that kind of money _and_ a reason to fight crime.

They slowed to a stop. This area had to be the brightest in the cave, with a gigantic series of computers lit up in a corner of the room. She could see a giant green dinosaur from the corner of her eye and tried not to question it. And then there was Alfred.

“I apologise, Master Br– ah, Batman,” he was saying, “I didn’t expect you so early.”

“It’s okay, Alfred,” Batman said, removing his cowl to confirm her suspicions – Bruce Wayne. “I’m pretty sure Barbara’s figured it out by now.”

 _Yeah_ , Batgirl thought, _Damn straight I_ –

Did he just call her Barbara?

“Um,” Batgirl said, and she was unable to say anymore.

“You look famished, Miss Barbara.” Alfred held out a plate of small sandwiches in front of her. “A bite to eat?”

But her speechlessness had quickly turned to anger. How did they know? How long had they known? Did they follow her? Could they tell? Did anyone else know? Barbara’s thoughts suddenly flew to her father. She had dealt with him as Batgirl a considerable number of times, now. Had he figured it out?

“How long have you known?” Barbara asked, removing her own cowl.

“Since the first day,” Bruce admitted, walking towards the giant computer.

“The first day?!” Barbara exclaimed.

“I placed a tracker on the tip of your cowl. At the end of the night, we monitored your whereabouts.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me anything?”

Bruce turned around to look at her, one eyebrow raised. “Would you have agreed?”

“No. And that’s the point!”

Bruce didn’t respond.

“This is a serious breach of privacy.”

“There was a citizen putting their life at risk. We had to monitor you so that we could stop you before you did something stupid.”

“We were just worried, Babs,” Robin said gently, standing behind her.  

Robin. She had forgotten about him. Everyone knew Batman and Robin’s relationship was a familial one. It ran deeper than just superhero and sidekick. These guys were like father and son.

Dick Grayson was Robin.

It took a while for the full implications of the revelation to hit her. Dick was Barbara’s closest friend at school. He knew _all_ about her infatuation with Robin. She’d gush over every detail of each time Robin had saved her, and Dick would always be there to listen patiently.

She kissed Robin on his fourteenth birthday.

_She kissed Robin on his fourteenth birthday._

Before she could think twice, she threw a punch at Dick’s face. She heard her own knuckles crack; she put all the force she could muster into that hit.

“AARGH!” he roared, recoiling and covering his face.

“You _dick_!” Barbara spat.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, it reminded her of all the times Barbara had said it to him before, and Dick would just give her that stupid grin and say, “That’s my name.”

It made her want to smile, but then she remembered that it was the same stupid grin Robin had been giving her on patrol for the past month, and she just wanted to hit him again.

“Seven years, Grayson,” she shook, “I’ve known you for seven years.”

He didn’t say anything. He either understood, or was in too much pain. Alfred approached him with some bandages and ice packs, and tilted Dick’s head back to clean the blood from around it. Barbara saw Bruce watching, his expression stiff and grim. Barbara placed her hands on her hips.

“Is there anything else I should know?” she asked.

“Artemis is Artemis,” Dick put out.

“Uh …”

“Archery girl. Green Arrow’s sidekick.”

“Artemis from Advanced Trig?”

“Yeah. And her boyfriend, Wally? He’s Kid Flash.”

“Oh, please, shoot me now.”

“No joke. We’re all part of a junior covert operations division of the Justice League.”

“Right.”

“Serious!”

“It’s no joke,” Bruce interrupted. “The team exists. And we’re offering you to join.”

Well, that escalated quickly.

Barbara didn’t even know how to begin to think about the proposal. Effectively, they were asking her to join the Justice League. A potentially small faction of it that no one’s actually heard of, but the Justice League nonetheless. Probably.

It just hit her that Batman and Robin had brought her into their base of operations and revealed their secret identities, which was probably something neither of them had actually done before. They probably wouldn’t have done that if they didn’t have complete faith in her – well, as much faith as the Batman could have, anyway.

She was still finding it hard to take Bruce Wayne and Batman and imagine them as the same person. The Bruce Wayne she knew was a chatty playboy who barely had any time for his ward, and just so different to Batman. It was equally difficult with Dick and Robin too, even though … now that she gave it some thought, it really shouldn’t be.

And here they were asking her to join the Justice League. Maybe. It was a little _too_ whelmed for her liking.

“I appreciate it, boys,” Barbara gave them a small smile, “But I’ve only been doing this for a month, and there’s been a lot to take in. I don’t think I’m ready to take on the big leagues just yet.”

“We think you’re ready,” Dick said.

“Yeah but … I mean, I’m still at school. And I have my dad to answer to. And Gotham’s big enough already.” Barbara sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m honoured that you think I’m so good. But I want to get used to the Batgirl thing first, you know?”

“But –”

“Understood,” Bruce butt in.

“And I’m still mad at you guys. At _all_ of you,” Barbara added, looking around the cave.

“Would you like me to bake you some fresh chocolate chip cookies, Miss Barbara?” Alfred asked.

“I’m not mad at Alfred anymore. Alfred is forgiven.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I made Barbara turn down the offer to join Young Justice because I wanted to stick to the Earth-16 canon as much as possible. Batgirl's designation in the show is B16, while Jason Todd's Robin was B13, which means Barbara joined the team sometime after Jason did, and also after Dick became Nightwing. I like to think Barbara would have bided her time a bit and got used to the vigilante thing a bit more before she broadened her scope. She's smart like that.


End file.
